Not
long ago, mention of Australia conjured visions of a vast
geological and zoological theme park.

These attractions still play a large part in the island
continent's appeal. Countless millennia of isolation from the
rest of the world have created an amazing diversity of flora and
fauna.
Nature diverged in a big way Down Under, and this is mirrored by
the growth of the country and its increasingly multicultural
population.

Today, students are likely to be drawn by the
sophistication of Australia's leading cities as much as the
outback visions popularized by the Crocodile Dundee
movies. Australians, with their sly, dry humor, tend to
perpetuate their national myths—not for nothing do they call
their country "Oz."

According to popular legend, these mythical "real
Australians" wore strange hats pinned up on one side and
had wonderfully twangy accents. They herded millions of sheep across
vast deserts, with an independent and often outrageously
down-to-earth approach to life. Australia today is a country
that inspires such clichés yet transcends almost all of them.

Today's Australians are an urban people, almost all of whom live
either on or within a few hours' drive of the coast. Since the
end of WWII, Australia has been a magnet for immigrants from
around the world. It is a land of opportunity and a new
frontier.

The archetypal Australian—a slow-talking
iconoclast of Celtic or English descent—still constitutes the
greater part of the population. But these days Australian
society is thoroughly saturated by the influence of its Italian,
Greek, Maltese, Lebanese, Chinese, and other settlers.

Yet some of the old attitudes and prejudices remain: the
self-reliant spirit is still there, as is a widespread disregard
for authority and an ability to shed social inhibitions at short
notice.

What students find are 18 million people living on one of the most
fascinating continents of the world. It's entirely possible to
visit Australia and never see a koala or a kangaroo—it takes a
little work, but it can be done—and if you meet somebody on
the Sydney streets wearing an Australian hat, he's probably from
Cleveland. But once you've driven through the outback, or
watched the sun rise over the Coral Sea, or shopped in one of
the elegant department stores in Sydney or Melbourne, you won't
go home disappointed.